Scarlets 11-3 Edinburgh

Scarlets (8) 11
Try: North Pens: Newtown 2
Edinburgh (3) 3
Pen: Blair

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George North scores the opening try for the Scarlets

George North celebrated his return to action with a try as the Scarlets moved up to second place in the Magners League with a comfortable home win.

The Wales winger, out since November following shoulder surgery, finished a flowing move after 20 minutes.

Dan Newton had opened the scoring with an early penalty and the fly-half added another after the break to establish some breathing space.

David Blair scored Edinburgh's only points with a first-half penalty.

The victory for Nigel Davies' men gave the Scarlets their first league double over the Scots and ended a six-match losing streak in all competitions since beating Edinburgh in early January.

Lewis Niven's side, though, extended their losing run to four games, having played three consecutive away matches in 12 days.

All the pre-match focus had been on the return of Wales' new sensation North - the 18-year-old who had burst onto the international scene with two tries on his debut against world champions South Africa in November.

And the north Walian took just 20 minutes on a wet night in Llanelli to give further evidence of his scoring prowess.

North showed pace, power and an appetite for the try line as he took a Johnathan Edwards pass in his stride on the right wing before surging past the hapless scrambling defence.

It was the clinical finish the move merited after backs and forwards had combined fluently, exploiting perfectly the disarray in the Edinburgh defence caused by turnover ball.

It was also no less than the Scarlets deserved after a commanding start which could easily have yielded an early penalty try after the visitors had transgressed three times in quick succession in the shadow of their own points.

Instead, the home side had to be content with Newtown's fourth-minute penalty as reward for their early endeavour.

But North's try put the Scarlets firmly in the driving seat, and the Parc y Scarlets crowd sensed more would follow after Edinburgh flanker Fraser McKenzie was sin-binned for a high tackle on the towering winger on 34 minutes.

None materialised, though, and by the time the second half was underway, the intensity and guile of the opening 40 minutes were sadly missing.

Edinburgh wasted two chances to take the lead when Blair missed shots at goal on 42 and 49 minutes.

Newtown made no mistake with a second successful penalty to take the Scarlets two scores clear, and the remaining 24 minutes in wet and windy conditions fizzled out without incident.

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Scarlets: D Evans; North, King, S Williams, Ajuwa; Newton, G Davies; I Thomas, Lawrence, R Thomas, Reed, Welch, A Shingler, J Edwards, Morgan.
Replacements: Rhys for D Evans (71), R Jones for I. Thomas (70), Gardner for R Thomas (60), Pugh for Welch (64).
Not Used: Hawkins, Cooper, Roberts, O Williams.

Edinburgh: Thompson; L Jones, Cairns, King, Visser; D Blair, Laidlaw; Niven, Kelly, Young, MacLeod, S Turnbull, MacKenzie, Talei, MacDonald.
Replacements: Brown for Thompson (56), Webster for L Jones (46), Traynor for Niven (40), Lozada for MacLeod (60), Grant for MacDonald (76).
Not Used: Walker, Gilding, Samson.

Att: 5,857

Ref: Dudley Phillips (RFU).